The streets were packed as the 28th Annual Jim Thorpe Halloween Parade made its way down the streets of East Jim Thorpe. This year marks the 12th year that the Jim Thorpe Lions Club hosted the event.

Local residents Jim and Sandra Gallagher were the Grand Marshals for the parade, riding together in a 1965 Chevrolet El Camino owned by Steve Berger.

“We are so humbled to be selected to be the grand marshals,” the Gallaghers had said in a previous statement. “Thank you to everyone involved in this endeavor.”

The Jim Thorpe Area High School Marching Band entertained the hometown crowd, dressed in various Halloween costumes, and came in first place in the Best Group category, followed in second place by the High School Cheerleaders.

Cub Scout Troop 138 of Jim Thorpe came in third place with their entry, “Pinewood Derby,” a tribute to a long-standing tradition with Scouting. Troop 138 also won first place in the “Most Original” category.

Girl Scouts Service Unit 309, which includes Jim Thorpe, Panther Valley, and Tamaqua, won for best float and came in second for most original entry for their float, “Barbie.”

County Junction’s float that featured a small barn with barnyard animals and a lot of bubbles came in second place for the “Best Float” category.

Mason’s Cold Beer, Jim Thorpe, won third place in both the “most original” and “best float” categories with their pickup truck with a lot of beer case boxes on the back.

2023 Carbon County Fair Queen Jayden Gursky rode in a classic red convertible. The Hawk Mountain Highlanders from Schuylkill County performed the drum and bagpipe music.

Several classic vehicles from the Jukebox Cruisers and the Pharoah Car Club of Jim Thorpe/Carbon County delighted the audience, as did a collection of classic tractors from Rocky Meckes.

And a popular attraction that can be found in just about all the area parades are the Rajah Shrine Forks of the Delaware Tin Lizzies from Easton.

Other organizations in the parade included the Jim Thorpe Lions Club, The Jim Thorpe Little League Softball Team Olympians, Jim Thorpe Youth Soccer, and the Olympians Booster Club.

The Pennsylvania State Police, the Jim Thorpe Fire Department, Jim Thorpe Police and the Community Watch team, Carbon County Sheriff Dan Zeigler, and the Lehighton Ambulance; as well as the Jim Thorpe Neighborhood Bank, Karper’s Lawn Care, and Berhard’s Service Center were all in the year’s parade.